Experience social technology the corporate way.

Written on Friday, 16 August 2013 by Chris Vo

A study in McKinsey’s report identified the benefits and values associated with organizations implementing Enterprise 2.0 using the 10 Social Technology value levers (as shown below). These levers are present in multiple functional areas of the business (also known as the business value chain).

Last week we discussed how the Wikinomics business model principles applied to businesses using enterprise 2.0 technology such as Starbucks and StacksOverflow. Today we look at how Commonwealth Bank uses enterprise 2.0 tools to leverage the product development and customer service functions for their business.

They’re SOCIAL on social media!

Like Starbucks, Commonwealth Bank (or commbank) has multiples modes of interaction between its customers and key staff members so they could achieve as much feedback and ideas for improvements on any particular product or area of service as possible. They’re connected to just about all social media channels that you could think of… from Facebook to Youtube to Google+ and their most recent, blogging.
More on Commbank’s social media strategy can be seen in this clip below.

1. Product development (Customers are the co-creators for products)
Commbank provides a livespace community forum, called IdeaBank where customers can post, vote or discuss with other customers within the community the ideas which could relate to existing products or products (or services in some cases) that they wish to see modified or developed in the future. Customers can vote on the likelihood in which they wish to see an idea come into action. This is the usual process for product development via social media interaction.

So I believe that Commbank has set the bar for other major banks to up their game when it comes to providing a strong community and a customer based support network or simply by reaping the priceless benefits and values of using social technology. A big thumbs up for Commbank!

4 Comments

Very nice article man. It's great to see a company so involved with their customers. I am personally sick of seeing business that totally ignore the thoughts and feedback of its consumers, it feels like they don't even care.

Nice blog Chris. Very interesting read. However I would be interested to hear you opinion (and anyone elses) on something. It is true that Commonwealth bank does deliver quality service, but do you believe that they care for their customers past a business standpoint?

I personally believe that their customer service is simply in place to keep their member base. I understand most people simply want good customer service and they don't really mind how genuine it is, but I simply think that Commonwealth and the other major banks simply use customer service as a competitive standpoint to maintain their market.

I concur with your opinion on this one. I would presume that Commonwealth bank and all other major banks focus primarily on delivering a high quality service to remain competitive and at the top of their game in the market against other banks.